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Ping on NBN

Ping to www.fearby.com on NBN, this looks good, I was getting 29ms/49ms on ADSL 2.

— fearby.com ping statistics —
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 18.489/19.609/20.052/0.649 ms

Upload WordPress install to a server on NBN

Upload of a small 9,551,485 byte file (Latest WordPress) to www.fearby.com on ADSL 2 via SCP on NBN

192-168-1-1:Downloads username$ scp /Users/username/Downloads/wordpress-4.9.2.zip scpuser@www.fearby.com:/wordpress-4.9.2-try5.zip
scpuser@www.fearby.com’s password:
wordpress-4.9.2.zip
100% 9328KB 1.5MB/s 00:06

192-168-1-1:Downloads username$ scp /Users/username/Downloads/wordpress-4.9.2.zip scpuser@www.fearby.com:/wordpress-4.9.2-try6.zip
scpuser@www.fearby.com’s password:
wordpress-4.9.2.zip
100% 9328KB 1.5MB/s 00:06

Note: This took 6 seconds to upload 9mb (it used to take up to 1 minute and 53 sec on ADSL 2)

Traceroute to google.com.au on NBN

traceroute failed.

This is weird?

Troubleshooting

I disabled the outgoing firewall (SSH, SCP was now working but why not PING and traceroute)? I will configure the outgoing firewall another day.

I did leave flood protection, SYN flood and ARP attack protection on.

Wifi Congestion

No WiFi congestion near me.

Speedtest Benchmark

Let’s see the benchmark numbers.

Conclusion

I was very happy with the initial NBN speeds, constant drop outs and two replacement routers and a dead landline is tiring.

Questions for TPG

• Q1) Who handles router firmware updates (to fix OpenSSL and other issues) while on contract?

Pros (so far)

• As advertised speeds 🙂
• 5.8x faster Download speed.
• 21.7 times faster Uploads.
• 1/4 faster ping (based on manual pings).
• 6 seconds to upload WordPress on an NBN compared to 1 minute 54 seconds on ADSL 2 = awesome.
• Editing this blog seems way faster.
• TPG: TPG Social Media team is awesome.
• Higher Upload Speeds (I am after faster upload over download)
• NBN Co called my landline and asked how our NBN connection experience went (for research purposes), I pointed them to this blog.
• The Pillar technician said the signal at the FTTN Node is not turned all the way up yet so the FTTN has room to move later when people in the neighbourhood connect.

Cons (so far)

• Onto third router.
• Constant Internet dropouts.
• Dead landline for 5 days.
• TPG: No Static IP on TPG Residential NBN plans like TPG ADSL Residential Plans. I have to register my public IP with private servers I manage every 4 days it seems (first I had a few external IP’s then 120.88.x.x then 14.201.x.x). It’s a pain configuring remote server firewalls when the IP changes.
• TPG: 2-4 day wait for payment before the 2-30 day upgrade happens. TPG should mention 4-30 days installation. How does it take 4 days (2 business days + 2 weekend days) to verify payment in 2018? I can run payment in seconds with Stripe.
• I had to reset the routes factory settings when WiFi stopped allowing new devices and some connected devices form using WiFi.
• Huawei Router is locking up and needs a daily reboot, WiFi light is on but nothing can connect to it (ethernet connected devices also fail to talk to the net)
• TPG: New router has a 2A power supply (router has little vents for cooling compared to my 0.85 amp TPLink ADSL2 router (that had awesome cooling)). I had to solve t by e heat issue (voiding the warranty).
• NBN: Communication between Retailer and NBN could be better.
• New router WiFi range only has a range of 40m ((but no channel congestion), the old one I had a range of 80m due to external antennae). Update: I was advised by a blog reader that setting a 20Mhz WiFi setting offers better range over a 20/40Mhz wifi range (but I would need to re-enter the password on devices).

I hope this helps someone. Have I missed anything?

General Warning

NBN Door Knockers are out and about saying landlines will be disconnected and in some cases offer an approx $100 installation of an NBN broadband solution. My in-laws were signed up today and they received the following with an on-site installation.

The large carrier (via chat) said we needed to call them to confirm if this is legit or a scam (I was not a registered contact on the inlaws account so kudos to them for refusing to confirm or deny (they did refuse to call the customer the following day)). The said router seemed nice (good cooling vents and cable management, 12v 2Amp power supply) but no details were left from the carrier as to how to manage it like the TPG router.

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I would recommend people contact their NBN broadband retailer of choice early and not wait for a salesperson to door knock as they may be motivated by commission.

Update 30th May – Huawei router became slow again, Pinging google failed or was up to 2,600mns latency, Speedtest.Net failed to load, Google speed test failed to load.

Rebooted the router and waited 5 mins (back to normal), I hopo the TP-Link router is better

(9 PM speeds)

Update 29th May – TPG is sending a replacement TP-Link router. Thanks

Update 27th May

1. Huawei Router needs a daily reboot as the WiFi and ethernet routing to the Internet stop working.
2. Every changing dynamic WAN IPs are causing hell with my firewalls on remote servers. I’m not paying $20/m for a feature that was free on ADSL 2

Update June 2018

Landline phone has been down for 5 days, new TPLink router arrived and I had to rest it up and enter all my details on advice from TPG. Landline still down. Third router been sent (TPLink) as TPG suspect the TPLink is faulty. The router needed rebooting as the Internet stopped working now my top speed is 5Mb on a 5pmb plan.

Waiting for the new router, I tried the old Huawei and it could get a dialtone for 30 seconds max. Line fault?

Update Feb 16th, 2018

My Router WiFI stopped working and the router was very hot to touch. TPG said they can call but I doubt how this can help lower the temperatures. The Router is already in its own room, has a large unimpeded space to breathe (3m x 10m x 8m). Intenet googling revealed the router has no heatsink and this router gets quite hot.

No heatsink on the CPU die.

I solved this heat problem with external fans etc.

Update Feb 20th, 2018

I had to reset the router as some devices could not talk to WiFi and new devices could not connect to WiFi. Interestingly Connecting an Apple time capsule tho to Huawei ethernet port it to fails to allow internet access from time to time (upstream)

FYI: The router will remember the TPG username and some settings is you use the routers software factory reset (custom firmware)?

FYI: Typical evening speed is 50/20 connection, pings are lower.

Update 28th Feb 2018

Downloads are much faster. SFTP downloads over port 22 on ADSL 2 were painfully slow before, now I can backup many serves at once. Some of the servers below are very far away (New York and Florida) are naturally slower.

Update 26th April 2018

Download speeds are falling below 40MB at night and surprisingly falling to 13.5Mb in the middle of the day???

More to come.

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